SHIMʿON BAR YOḤʾAI (second century CE) was a Palestinian tanna, rabbinic leader, mystic, and ascetic. Shimʿon was one of the two most prominent students of ʿAqivaʾ ben Yosef (the other was Meʾir); he was the student who provoked the deposition of Gamliʾel from the position of nasiʾ of Israel (cf. B.T., Ber. 28a). Shimʿon was one of the five rabbis ordained by Yehudah ben Bavaʾ during the Hadrianic persecutions that followed the Bar Kokhba Revolt. After the Sanhedrin was reestablished in the Galilean city of Usha, Shimʿon taught in nearby Tiberias and Meron. According to several legends, he was responsible for locating many lost tombs and removing these sources of ritual uncleanness from Tiberias, thereby restoring its prominence in the...